Hi All,
Hope everyone enjoyed their 3 day weekend! I did and that is why I am late with the Happy Note for the week
Saturday I got to spend with my bestie, Sunday I ended up resting most of the day but Tod & I did end up at REI and got some great deals on new works boots & sneakers for me and a pair of sneakers for Tod! Monday we did our grocery shopping and just lazed about the house…and that is why you are getting a Happy Friday note
Last week in the garden York started up their time in the garden! They have a new teacher, Ursala, and she is continuing the tradition of bringing the students out on Mondays! For her first time in the garden we toured her and the crew around and a couple of the students got to shoe her what they do while in the garden:) After the tour they paired some gloves and helped to feed & water the worms. Before they took off each participant got to take a tomato home with them from our Amana Orange bed!
The P beds had the fence frame built around it-over 100’ of fencing went up in 2 days. This fencing will help to keep the ground squirrels from running right in to the P beds and eating up the vegetables as they grow. We used metal piping and PVC joints to create the frame of the fence which all went in to the ditch that was dug around the beds last week.
The Bee Area got a new fixture! Kelly built Brenda and me a shorter table, with extra plywood he had back at his house, to use to stack the boxes from the hives as we take them off. We asked him for a knee height table so we do not have to lean backwards in order to stack the boxes on the higher table. I used it 2 days later and it worked great! Thank you Kelly!
A couple of our volunteers went to plant radishes in bed AB32 and needed to take out some tomato cages from the bed. They worked with Brenda on creating a pyramid for the birds to hang out in over winter. We plan to stack the cages in a different way this year to save some room but Brenda brought up a good point that the birds need somewhere to perch and they really like to use the tomato cages!
Speaking of critters, we have seen the fox! Over the past few months we have been trying to treat momma fox with Ivermectin for the mange but over summer they become very elusive. Thursday I saw her laying down under the trailers over by the church garden so Brenda was able to get her another dose of medicine! She is looking better. I think she is still in summer coat right now so hard to tell if it is working just yet!
Lots of maintenance going on in the garden. Weeding of course-garden wide. The pop up next top the back patio was taken down and the area cleaned up underneath it. The Front Apron’s path was weeded out and swept up. CL was working on the bitter melon trellis’ and got some help with dropping a post in for the grapes along the Eastern fence line. Behind the Big Hoop House the cardboard was cleaned up and placed inside the hoop house. The Compost Area got some love as well, all the piles were moved in to their respective bunkers.
Kaleidoscope was out and helped us with harvesting for our first ever Fertile GroundWorks Donor Tasting Event! They helped us to harvest over 67# of produce! They helped with tomatoes, okra and chard. For a sit down chore option they got to shred paper and coffee filters that Lance has generously been bringing in for us to use in the worm bin! Lance also helped to weigh the harvest as Kaleidoscope brought the produce in! Thank you Kaleidoscope and Lance!
The Tasting event was beautiful! Thursday EL started helping Teresa with prepping the onions and MB & Hubby came in the afternoon to continue with the food prep! DZ showed up the following morning to help Teresa & Angela with the cooking and MB & Hubby showed up as well! As the afternoon volunteers started showing up they either helped in the kitchen or with set up of the tables in the church courtyard. Once the event started going the volunteers also helped with serving the delicious food! The food was wonderful and the company was lovely! Thank you one and all for coming out and helping us to continue our work for the community!
You all also harvested over 850lbs of produce to send in to the pantries
Thank you once again for always showing up to help out your community!
Take care
Lori
P.S. A few lovely pictures from the event
#1 Board President Angela Ko
#2 Executive Director Brenda Kusler & Board President Angela Ko with 2 of our donors
#3 Volunteers in the kitchen with Teresa
